Former world champions Anthony Joshua and Joseph Parker on Saturday re-established their heavyweight title credentials with victories on the same Riyadh bill.
British boxer Joshua produced one of his best performances of recent times by stopping Sweden’s Otto Wallin, who was pulled out by his corner after the fifth round of a one-sided bout.
Earlier, Parker enjoyed a unanimous points-decision win over fellow former world champion Deontay Wilder, with the New Zealander triumphing 118-111, 118-110, 120-108 in a dominant display that appeared to scupper prefight talk the American would next face Joshua.
Photo: Reuters
There had also been speculation that whoever triumphed in a Wilder-Joshua bout would face the winner of February’s clash between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk, who between them hold all the major versions of the world heavyweight title.
However, Joshua said he paid no attention to Wilder’s fight.
“I wasn’t watching. I just focused on myself... Deontay, everything that he said about me, I could rip him apart right now, but I’m going to take the higher ground,” he told DAZN.
The victory gave Joshua his third win of the year after he beat Jermaine Franklin Jr by unanimous decision in April before a seventh-round stoppage of Robert Helenius in August.
It also took the 34-year-old’s professional record to 27 wins and three defeats as he inflicted the first inside the distance loss of Wallin’s career.
Joshua is looking to become a three-time world champion following two defeats by Usyk and a shock 2019 loss to Andy Ruiz.
“Not so much a throwback fight, just another day in the office,” Joshua said. “You want to do whatever it takes to be victorious. That’s all I want to be.”
Wallin’s only previous professional loss had come against Fury, but he had no answer from the opening bell against Joshua, who with just more than a minute of the fifth round remaining produced a superb left hook that had Wallin stumbling toward the ropes.
Earlier Parker, comprehensively defeated Wilder in the former WBC champion’s first bout in more than two years.
“Everyone had other plans, but this is God’s plan,” said Parker, 31, who improved to 34-3 with 23 knockouts after sparring with Fury.
Hong Kong-based cricket team Hung See this weekend found success in their matches in Taiwan, even if none of the results went their way. Hung See played the Chairman’s XI on Saturday morning, the Daredevils that afternoon and PCCT yesterday, with all three home teams winning. The team for Chinese players at the Happy Valley-based Craigengower Cricket Club sends teams on tour to “spread the game of cricket.” This weekend was Hung See’s second trip to Taiwan after visiting Tainan in 2016. “The club has been traveling to all parts of the world since 1982 and the annual tradition continues [with the Taiwan
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Coco Gauff’s dreams of a first women’s singles title in Melbourne were crushed in the quarter-finals by Paula Badosa. World No. 2 Alexander Zverev was ruffled by a stray feather in his men’s singles quarter-final, but he refocused to beat 12th seed Tommy Paul and reach the semi-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania and Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 in 2 hours, 20 minutes to advance the semi-finals. Hsieh and Ostapenko converted eight of 14 break
The San Francisco Giants signed 18-year-old Taiwanese pitcher Yang Nien-hsi (陽念希) to a contract worth a total of US$500,000 (NT $16.39 million). At a press event in Taipei on Wednesday, Jan. 22, the Giants’ Pacific Rim Area scout Evan Hsueh (薛奕煌) presented Yang with a Giants jersey to celebrate the signing. The deal consisted of a contract worth US$450,000 plus a US$50,000 scholarship bonus. Yang, who stands at 188 centimeters tall and weighs 85 kilograms, is of Indigenous Amis descent. With his fastest pitch clocking in at 150 kilometers per hour, Yang had been on Hsueh’s radar since playing in the HuaNan Cup
HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: After Coco Gauff dispatched Belinda Bencic in the fourth round, she wrote ‘RIP TikTok USA’ and drew a broken heart on a television camera lens Defending champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while compatriot Chan Hao-ching on Saturday dominated her opponents in the second round, as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka swept into the quarter-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia toppled Hungary’s Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US 6-4, 6-3, hitting 24 winners and converting three of seven break points in 1 hour, 18 minutes at 1573 Arena. Although rivals at last year’s Australian Open — where Hsieh and Belgium’s Elise Mertens beat Ostapenko and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-1, 7-5
RSS